Canseco`s Wife Hits Back With Suit

February 08, 1991

MARTINEZ, CALIF. — Esther Canseco`s lawyer says she still loves her husband, Jose, but she has counterfiled for divorce in California.

Mrs. Canseco filed her petition on Wednesday, one day after seeking to stop her husband`s divorce action in Florida. Unlike community-property states such as California, Florida does not require an equal division of a couple`s belongings, her lawyer said.

``She still loves him very much,`` said her attorney, Frank Quintero of Miami. The star slugger for the Oakland Athletics didn`t even tell his wife he planned to divorce her and hasn`t told her why he wants to end their two-year marriage, he said.

``She was not prepared for this,`` Quintero said. ``It came out of the blue three or four weeks ago. She asked him to go to a marriage counselor, but he refused. Now she believes there are irreconcilable differences.``

Despite the dueling divorce suits, the Cansecos are still living together in their Coral Gables, Fla., home.